As we often report, several countries are pushing some impressive goals to transition their car fleet to electric. Now China is feeling the pressure to act because of its growing air pollution problem and the country looks likely to turn to a ZEV mandate to achieve its own goals for the transition to electric transport.

The latest draft of the proposed legislation is pushing for a relatively aggressive mandate that is already causing some panic amongst automakers heavily investing in the country now that it has become the biggest car market in the world. expand full story

California’s ZEV mandate has been quite successful in making California an important market for electric vehicles. The idea is that automakers get ZEV credits when they sell zero-emission vehicles in the state. If they sell enough ZEVs as part of their entire sales in the market, they comply with the mandate and they will not get fined, but if they don’t sell enough, they will be fined or they can purchase ZEV credits (at a discount on the fine) from other automakers with a surplus.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is working on updating the program and the automotive industry is on the edge of its seat to learn the impact it will have on the Californian auto market, which is the most important in the US.

Mary Nichols, the chair of the state’s Air Resources Board, hinted this week that they were leaning toward making the mandate stricter despite some strong opposition by automakers. expand full story